334 MAIDEN CASTLE
Wizzie's perfectly modelled hips and flanks as an older church-
goer might have done.
The girl herself, so accustomed had she grown in the Circus
to these anonymous recognitions of the desirability of her
person, didn't give the boys' clinging glance a thought, but
she detected in a second how a magnetic current passed into
No-man's erotic nerves, and well did the girl know the apprais-
ing look with which he surveyed her, from the collar of her
jersey to her belt and thence down her side. She knew that
at that moment he would have been ready to burn a whole
page of Mary Charming on condition that he might^ fondle
her then and there to his heart's content!
But she frowned and sighed and looked away. Their signifi-
cant moment had quite gone, killed by those choir-boys' ef-
frontery, but the very last thing she wanted just then was to
give him an opportunity for that cold-blooded dalliance which
seemed the only passion of which he was capable.
Oh, she knew him so well! For when, after a nervous open-
ing and shutting of the fingers of his right hand, as if to grasp
the handle of that stick he had forgotten, he gave a little jerk
to her wrist and whispered hurriedly. "Come back with me,
sweetheart! They'll not worry, they'll just go on; and we'll
catch them up before they get to Maiden Castle; or, if we
don't, we'll find them there. Come along, my pet!"
The dark wave of anger that mounted up in her against
him at this moment showed itself in her eyes. Was this the way
he was going to take her to his lodging in High East Street
for the first time ? Just because he hadn't seen her before in
jersey and trousers!
He had hardly touched her hand when he dropped it hurriedly,
catching sight of her face. "You don't want to? Oh, well, oh,
well—then I won't go myself. To the devil with my stick,
sweetheart! Don't'ee look like that. I won't go at all! Come
on, we'll soon catch them up. I didn't mean to spoil the
day like this—and such a perfect day as it is! Come on, old
girl."
Wizzie turned with him in silence, and they followed the
path beside the row of villas that border the Weymouth Road
as far as the Brewery,
It was impossible for them to avoid turning to look at the
familiar fair-field when they came opposite to it. There was a